Street, Smith 'adamant' about pitching fourth straight day
Huston Street and Joe Smith pointed at one another, playing a game of "Not It," prior to the Angels' 2-1 win over the Yankees on Tuesday night.
With each having pitched in three consecutive games, would either Smith or Street be unavailable to come out of the bullpen Tuesday?
"I said I wasn't down, and he said he wasn't down, or he said he wasn't down, so I wasn't going to be the one to be down," Street said.
Translation: Neither pitcher wanted the night off.
And both made an appearance. The Angels' setup man and closer combined to throw two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, with both making their fourth appearance in as many games.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia admitted there was some hesitation in sending his setup man and closer out for a fourth consecutive day. The plan of Scioscia and pitching coach Mike Butcher to make just one of them available just wasn't good enough for the Halos bullpen studs.
"Both of those guys were adamant," Scioscia said. "They said 'If our role comes up, we're going to pitch. We feel good.' And their stuff was good. Huston had, probably, the best stuff out of the four days tonight. That was encouraging."
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For Smith, it was his 22nd hold of the season, which leads Major League Baseball; while Street recorded his 23rd save of the year and the 298th of his career.
Smith needed just seven pitches for his outing, and Street just 15. Street says he was able to "push the envelope" and make a fourth straight appearance because of the way the Angels schedule lines up over the next week. The team will be off Thursday, with another off day Monday.
"Sometimes there's certain times in the year where you can push yourself," Street said. "This was one of those perfect scenarios."
However, pitching Wednesday, on five straight days, might just be pushing it.
"It's go to sleep, wake up, and we'll worry about tomorrow (later)," Scioscia said.
